November 9, 2017 7:54pm ESTNovember 9, 2017 7:54pm ESTBoth are talented young men, but who got the better end of the deal?

Michael Di Lonardo

Published on Nov. 9, 2017

Nov. 9, 2017

The Bulldogs have now officially registered the contracts of marquee signings Kieran Foran and Aaron Woods after completing a player trade with the Raiders to help sneak them under the NRL's new $9.4 million salary cap figure.

Canterbury have released young fullback Brad Abbey after coach Dean Pay announced Moses Mbye would be tried at the back, at the same time acquiring Raiders lock Clay Priest.

Abbey earned his NRL debut in 2017 while Will Hopoate recovered from a fractured cheekbone, producing a highlight moment in Round 5 where he scored the winning try against the Broncos in a low-scoring 10-7 affair - the same fixture where Des Hasler won a new NRL contract.

Priest established himself as a first grader last year and provided a versatile body in a rather large Canberra pack, playing a career-high 17 games mainly off the bench.

The trade deal means the NRL can finally give the green light for Woods and Foran's multi-million dollar deals after poor planning of the club's finances.

"Although we are extremely sad to see Brad Abbey leave, we look forward to Clay joining us at the club,'' chairman Ray Dib said in a statement.

''After meeting with the NRL, we are pleased to announce that the club is salary cap compliant for next season and we can now put all our focus into preparing well in the coming months under new head coach, Dean Pay."

When all 16 clubs agreed to the NRL's $9.4 million cap figure, Canterbury still needed to shave off a reported $600,000 and were forced to send skipper James Graham to the Dragons.

But they are still forking out a significant amount of his $1.05 million deal and needed to shed more weight to loosen their bulging cap, taking on Priest's cheaper salary to do so.